Max works for SHIELD, a Maximum Ride fanfic
by tyw7
Summary: Maximum Ride, a human-avian hybrid experiment, has caught the attention of Nick Fury and recruited into SHIELD. This story has it's origins as a role playing session. Each chapters will be updated with her "missions." :D
1. Trying out for SHIELD

Max was directed to Oliver's office by Director Nick Fury of SHIELD. She had flown over Nick the previous day and caught his attention. Although he was impressed with her, he said that recruitment to SHIELD was not his field of work.

Max knocked at the door with the plaque "Agent Oliver, SHIELD Human Resources manger" on it.

Inside the room, Oliver was on a phone call. "Yes, yes I know," she expatriated. "Tell him I will get back to him tomorrow."

Oliver rubbed her forehead muttering, "I have gotta get a break." Her desk was piled high with paper work and forms. On one corner of the desk sat a desktop computer with a screensaver of SHIELD logo spinning. On the other corner set the Star Wars stationary, which she had collected over the years.

"Come in," cried Oliver from inside.

She turned to Max, surprised to see an unfamiliar face "What can I do for you?"

"Can I offer you a cup of tea or coffee," she added. "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met."

"Coffee would be nice," Max said as she held out her hand, "I'm Maximum Ride, and I believe I can offer something to SHIELD."

Oliver shook Max hand firmly. "Agent Oliver, at you service." "Milk or sugar?" Oliver said as she got up to make some tea.

"Both," Max replied as she twiddled her thumbs. She was quite nervous.

Oliver stirred the sugar into the coffee and added some milk. She returned to the desk and handed the coffee to Max and sat down.

"Thanks," Max said as she took the cup from Oliver,

"You look rather young " Oliver said as she sipping her tea.

"I don't actually know my date of birth since I was created by a lab in Itex," Max replied.

Oliver raised her eyebrow. "Created in a lab? Okay, so you have my attention, please tell me about it."

"I was created in a lab," Max replied, "An experiment by the scientists at Itex at genetic splicing. When I was a fetus, they splice avian DNA into me. I'm 2% bird 98% human. My bones are hollow so I'm actually lighter than normal humans. One of the affects of the splicing is that I have wings."

Max unfurled 14-foot wings and almost knocked over Oliver's Star War's stationary.

"Watch it," Oliver said smiling.

"Sorry," Max said, "And can breathe underwater. Plus, I have sharp vision and rapid healing."

"I see ...," Oliver replied as she turned to the computer. She tapped on the computer keyboard and she pulled up the files SHIELD had gathered about Max on her computer. "Well, you do appear to have some useful skills. How exactly did you end up here?"

"Well, Nick Fury directed me to you," Max answered, "I kinda flew overhead of him and caught his attention."

"I can imagine you would have," Oliver said, "So what makes you think you are SHIELD material?"

"I think I make perfect SHIELD material, Max replied. "For one thing, I have the abilities. And I'm strong and tough."

"Do you have any experience in the field? You have to understand that you can't just become an asset...it takes training," Oliver said peering at Max over the computer.

"I have fought the Erasers before, and other bad guy," Max replied.

"Wolf-human genetic hybrids, am I correct?" Oliver said as she examined Max's files.

"Yes," Max replied. They're quite mean and nasty. Yes, how did you know?"

"We're SHIELD, it's our job to know," Oliver said, "Well that is quite impressive. Perhaps we could run you through some tests."

Max stares at her and shudders, "You mean like lab tests?"

She thought back at her time at Itex when she was jabbed and poked at by the various scientists. She remembered when she was kept in a cage like animals by the Itex technicians.

"You OK?" Oliver asked to Max.

"I'm fine," Max replied regaining her composure. "It's just that I have a bad memory of tests since I was a lab experiment at Itex. I was jabbed and poked at like lab animals."

"Oh no, not those kind of tests, just some basic exercises to see what you can do. Test your abilities. Physical ones to test your abilities," Oliver replied, "follow me."

Max followed Oliver to the winding hallways of SHIELD HQ.

Max pass by a gym room where SHIELD members trained. She saw Captain America throwing jabs at a punching bag. She also caught a glimpse of Tony Stark walking in the outside corridors.

"Is that," Max exclaimed, "Captain America and Tony Stark aka Iron Man?"

"Yes," Oliver replied. She waved at Tony and smiled. He waved back at her.

"They are one of our core members of SHIELD," she explained.

Oliver led Max to an outdoor courtyard indoor testing facility full of machines that beep and whirled. Oliver reached out to a cabinet and took out a mask.

As she handed it to Max, she explained, "This will measure your oxygen level."

Max placed the mask over her head.

Olive then took out a wristband and attached it to Max's wrist. "This will measure your heart beat, speed, and the such."

"First, I would like to test your flight maneuvers," she continued. She tapped into a panel and a drone came out of a hole in the cubical. "Try to avoid the drone."

The drone fired at her causing Max to cry out, "Whoa!"

Max ducked and the fire left a scorch mark on the floor.

"Don't worry, it won't kill you, just give you a nasty sting," Oliver replied as she smiled. "You can start anytime."

Max snapped open her wing and shot into the air. The drone chased after her. It fired at her left wing. Max tilted her wings and banked sharply to the right. Try as she might, the drone was still on her tail.

_Time to lose the drone,_ Max thought. Max flapped her wings harder and shot forward at 300 miles per hour. The wind whistled past her ear as she flew.

Back on the ground, Oliver glanced at the data read outs. "This girl is fast," she muttered. "And she's hardly breaking a sweat."

Max glanced back at the drone but it was nowhere in sight. Just then, the drone popped out of nowhere above her causing her to lose a feather or two. Max pulled upwards but the drone was still following her. Suddenly Max got an idea.

Max dove to the ground and just before she hit she spread her wings and pulled upwards. However, the drone was too slow and didn't pull up in time. It smashed to the ground.

Back at SHIELD HQ, Olive watched the video footage of the exercise suddenly turned to static as she lost signal from the drone.

She saw Max flying back to her with a grin on her face. Olive was a little worried. How could she explain to Nick Fury that a thousand dollar equipment was destroyed in a second.

"How did I do?" Max asked Oliver.

"Well, I have to admit you impressed me," Oliver replied smiling, "I wasn't expecting you to out fly the drone.

"So what's next?" Max asked.

"Well, I wouldn't mind seeing how your hand to hand combat is. We could head down to the gym?" Oliver replied.

"No problem," Max side smiling, "I could probably use a work out."

"Follow me then," Oliver said, leading Max to one of the empty SHIELD gyms, "Wait here. I'll be back in two minutes."

Oliver then went into the changing room and returned in training gear.

When Oliver returned, Max asked, "Won't I need one?"

"If you want to change into something more comfortable be my guest, these are just standard gym pants and vest," Oliver replied.

"But I didn't bring any with me," Max said.

Oliver went to one of the lockers and tossed Max a pair of dark blue tracksuit. "Here you go."

Max changed into those and returned. While she did that, Oliver did some standard stretches and warm out routines.

Max came out changing room looking absolutely gorgeous. The tight fitting shirt and pants hugged her body accentuating her curves. "How do I look?" Max asked.

"Fine," Oliver replied, "Although I'm not assessing how you look. So what kind of hand to hand combat are you familiar with?"

"Well normal punches and stuff. Maybe throwing a few objects around. I mostly utilize my wings for aerial attack," Max replied.

"I'm afraid I can't compete on an aerial attack, but show me what you've got," Oliver said as she beckoned Max to attack.

Max rushed towards Oliver and threw a left hook. In response, Oliver raised her right arm to block and stepped aside. "Again."

Max flipped over her and then jabbed Oliver from the back. Oliver, surprised by Max's speed takes the hit before dropping to a crouch. Then she extended her legs and spun around, knocking Max to the ground.

Oliver extended her hand and pulled Max up. "You should use your wings more, if they are supporting some of your weight at all times that wouldn't work."

"Are you suggesting me to fly and attack?" Max said confused. "Is there enough space here? I'm not used to flying indoors."

"Not necessarily," Oliver replied, "but if you're ready for flight, it might mean that you don't fall if someone goes for your legs."

"Oh. But my wings is 14 feet wide" Max said.

"It's worth bearing in mind if you're in an open space. Want to try again?" said Oliver.

"Of course," Max replied, snapping out her wing and hovering in the air. "Also won't it mean more of an attack area?"

"Yes, but sometimes that's the situation you're going to find yourself in," Oliver replied. She changed her stance, waiting for Max to attack.

Max shoots off into the air and dives at Oliver. She then grabbed Oliver's hand and pulled her into the air.

Oliver grabbed Max's other arm and pulled herself up. Then placing her feet on Max's stomach, she pushed hard, prompting Max to let go. Oliver somersaulted as she fell, landing in a crouch position. "That's more like it," Oliver said grinning as she ran towards Max.

Max flapped her wings and flew higher. Then she dove to the ground, tacking Oliver from behind.

Oliver threw her elbow back and connected with her shoulder, before twisting around and grabbing her wings. Max wince in pain.

Max wept at Oliver's leg. Oliver jumped over the sweep, twisting to grab Max's arm and restrain her. "Not bad, given your lack of training.

"Well I got on the job training fighting the Erasers," Max replied grinning panting hard.

"That's true," Oliver said as she let go of the hold, "You obviously have a good instinct for this, any experience with weapons?"

"Umm none... without any ids of any sorts, I'm pretty sure I can't buy guns," Max said as she stood up. Max was panting and sweating a lot.

That's fine, I'm not testing you on things you don't know. Well I'll have to get this written up for the Director.

Not wanting to look bad, Max said, "Well I could always learn how to use it. I am a fast learner."

"I can't provide you with firearms," Oliver said, misunderstanding Max. "You've not passed any training and you're not in SHIELD. I'm sorry."

"No what I mean is that although I cannot use firearms, I can be trained with it if I do get accepted," Max responded quickly.

"Well it does form part of the basic training," Oliver said. "You'll find there's a lot of things you'd need to learn if you're accepted.

Max said, "So what's next?"

"I'm afraid there's nothing else to do," Oliver said, I'd better escort you out, but we should get changed first."

Max and Oliver headed towards and changed. Oliver finished first and waited outside for Max to come out. When Max emerged, Oliver said, "So where are you living at the minute?"

"Umm a small apartment a few miles from here," Max replied.

Oliver escorted Max through the compound. When they got to the main entrance of SHIELD, Oliver said smiling, "So you'll be okay getting home then?"

"Yeah," Max said as she snapped open her wing. "Hope I'll hear back soon. You know my number right?"

"Yes, I'm sure we'll be in touch soon," Oliver said.

Max leaped into the air, flapped her wing, and took off.


	2. Training Mission 1: Stalking Bruce Banne

Max was excited that she was accepted into S.H.I.E.L.D.

As she flew to S.H.I.E.L.D HQ, she could hardly contain her excitement flying in a few birds in her way. Seeing the building, angled her wing backward and dived to the ground. Just before she hit the ground, she snapped it open and landed crouching on the ground. The other agents entering and leaving the building paid no attention to her having seen weirder things.

She entered the building and saw Nick Fury with Natasha Romanov a tall woman with angular features and that no-nonsense attitude on her face. She had a dark red hair and slender features. Dressed in all black, she looked formidable. In her hand was a thick folder about the result from Agent Oliver, which said:

_Subject: Maximum Ride_

Species: Homo sapien (sub classification unknown)

Age: Approximately 15-17 (actual age unknown)

Abilities: Subject was part of a genetic experiment resulting in the hybridisation between her human DNA and an avian strain. This has resulted in the subject acquiring expansive wings measuring approximately 14 foot in span. It has also affected her bone structure, making her much lighter in weight. Flight is apparent providing space is available.

Assessment Results: During testing, Ms Ride showed speeds of up to 300 miles per hour, and surprising dexterity in the air. Subject disabled a flight drone during testing, a feat worth noting given her relative inexperience and age. Hand to hand combat was feral, but effective, her ability to fly being a great asset.

Recommendations:  
Given the unusual nature of her abilities, I recommend enrolment into our list of assets, with training beginning with immediate effect. Further study is highly recommended, both into her innate abilities and her genetic structure.

Nick turned toward Max and told her, "Max, I got the recommendation from Agent Oliver. You are officially a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. Congratulations."

Max smiled and went "Wohooo!" before re-gains composure and smiling.

Nick turned toward Natasha and nodded. "Miss Romanov here will be your trainer. I'll leave you two together."

He added slyly, "And I hope you don't destroy any more of my equipments or I'll have you work extra hours."

He then walked away. A few feet from Max he was seen tapping in his Bluetooth headset yelling, "What?!" before hurrying away.

Natasha turned towards Max and then smiled. "Oh, you're the new agent in S.H.I.E.L.D, aren't you?

Max held out her hand toward Natasha and said, "I'm Maximum Ride."

Natasha took Max's hands and shook it. "As General Fury said, I'm Natasha, Natasha Romanov. And I want to say congratulation for you, Agent Max."

"I need to know more about you first before we start training," Natasha continued. She glanced down at her then and then looked at Max. "So instead of flying what other skills that you have?"

Max replied, "I can breathe underwater, raptor vision, and fast healing."

"Good, good," Natasha answered jotting those facts in Max's files. "OK, so," she continued after thinking for a while, "we begin with infiltration. Make yourself unseen. On the field, you must figure it out by yourself. As you may know, S.H.I.E.L.D is involved with undercover operations so infiltration is the most important skill of any agent. Because this is training I'll just give you simple task."

Natasha coughed to clear her throat. "Just infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D base and try to gather information from Dr. Banner's computer about his latest project, and bring it to me. Make sure no one recognize you as S.H.I.E.L.D agent. Get in, get out, flawlessly. Got it?"

Natasha folded her arms and awaited Max's reply.

Max stood thinking for a while before asking, "And where's the PC is located and what should I steal?"

"The PC is located in S.H.I.E.L.D's lab in the 2nd floor. This lab is also his room. I'll give you this," Natasha said pulling out a thumb drive from her pocket, "just copy all his files in here. And give it to me soon as you done."

"Umm…" Max said hesitantly, "won't the PC be heavily encrypted? I don't know how to hack a computer"

"Just plug the USB drive and the onboard program will start copying the entire hard drive and all the files on it," Natasha said.

"Oh and don't trigger any red alerts," she continued smiling at her. "Your exercise starts now."

Max dashed off toward. She arrived at an elevator but it had a thumbprint on it. She placed her thumb on it but it flashed, user unauthorized.

"Damn," Max muttered stomping her foot.

She continued running down the corridor. She saw a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D soldiers.

"Oh shoot," she said just as she spotted a small storage closet. She giggled the door and it opened. She ducked inside and anxiously held her breath as she heard the thumping of feet outside. The pattering of feet soon faded away and disappeared. She slowly opened the door and saw that it was all clear. She came out of the closet and continued her exercise.

She turned a corner and came upon a flight of stairs. "Great just great," she silently swore as she huffed up the stairs.

When she arrived at the second flight of stairs, she emerged and peered around to make sure the coast was clear. She crept along the corridor and came upon a door that said, "Dr. Bruce Banner" on it. She heard the door jiggling and she dived behind a photocopy machine.

Dr. Bruce Banner emerged from the room together with Tony Stark saying, "Come on Bruce, want to go out for some shawarma?"

"No," Banner replied shaking his head, "it's too greasy. How about some Chinese instead?"

Tony replied, "Sounds great."

They two walked down the corridor toward the lift. Tony placed his thumb on the fingerprint reader and then entered it together with Banner.

Max reached towards the door and shook it. To her amazement, it was left open. She slowly turned the handle and opened the door. She entered the room. It was full of gizmos that whizzed and bleep. In one corner of the room was a large blackboard full of scientific equations and on another sat a small laptop. She studied the equations before shaking her head, trying to focus on the task at hand.

She approached the laptop, which was flashing S.H.I.E.L.D on the screen, and shook the mouse. As expected it asked for a password. She tried tapping in "PASSWORD" as the password but it bleeped that it was not recognized. She then tried "SHIELD" but that was not recognized and the computer threatened to lock her out. She remembered what Natasha told her – the thumb drive she was given had a kind of program that copied the entire computer. She plugged it in and the laptop hard drive whirled as the program on the thumb drive went into action. The screen went blank as the PC rebooted. Then it loaded the program from operating system from the hard drive. On the screen a large copying progress banner showed and slowly crawled to 100%.

At 90%, Max heard the elevator door open and heard footsteps approaching the room.

"Come on, come on," Max muttered. Max heard the door handle giggled and then saw it depressed. Max's heart was in her throat now.

As the progress bar reached 100%, Max yanked the hard drive from the computer and dove below the desk.

Banner entered into his room and grabbed his car keys. He noticed that some of his papers was moved but attributed it to some of the staffs messing about. He tossed the keys to Tony and then went out.

Max let out a sigh of relief and then crawled out from the desk. She exited the room and rushed down the flight of stairs before returning to Natasha and handing her the thumb drive.

"How did I do?" Max asked.


	3. Training Mission 2: Following Tony Stark

Having passed the previous task of stealing Dr. Bruce Banners files, Mrs. Natasha Romanova gave her another task: spying on Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man. It was 1 o'clock and Max's belly was grumbling.

"So the next training is spying," Natasha told Max, "Follow Tony from day till night, note every single his activities without being seen by him."

"Umm Tony is Iron Man right?" Max asked.

Natasha nodded, "Yup… Tony Stark. Good luck."

"Where can I find him?" Max asked.

"His tower," Natasha replied grinning.

"And where's that?" Max inquired.

"It's in the middle of the city. It's tall, huge, and has his name on it. You can't miss it," Natasha answered.

Max walked to the entrance of the SHIELD HQ, flapped her wings, and took off.

It was a bright sunny day. Max could hear the roaring sound of cars packing the streets and down below she saw crowds of people making their way through the city.

She soared above the city looking for the tower. In the distance, she saw a tall leaning tower with the "STARK" name on it. Max didn't know whether Tony would be in the tower or not so she decided to ask reception.

She closed her wings and dived. To not cause any panic, she landed in a dark alleyway. She carefully pulled her wings, arranging them against her spine. She straightened her jacket and approached the building. She walked the glass revolving doors of the tower and entered the lobby of the building. Max was really nervous.

She cleared her throat and walked to the lady at the reception. She cleared her throat and asked, "Is Mr. Stark in today?"

The reception looked up at her and answered, "He just went out for lunch. May I ask who are you so that I can tell Mr. Stark that you were looking for him."

"No, it's OK," Max replied and dashed out of the building. She rushed out and leaped into the air. She snapped open her wing and took off. Down below people were staring at her and took out their camera phones. Max saw this and quickly pulled upwards.

Max circled the city before seeing Tony coming out of a Burger King restaurant holding a paper bag in his hand. He then suited up and blasted off. Iron Man was flying towards her so Max quickly banked towards the left and flew behind some tall buildings. She flapped her wings as she hovered in place waiting for Tony to pass by. Then she tailed him from behind.

Tony thought he saw somebody flying in the air. He glanced back but he couldn't see anyone. He continued flying back to his tower and then landed. A large arch appeared from the floor of the tower and removed his Iron Man armor.

Max was close behind him. When Tony got into the building, she dropped to the balcony of the Tower. She landed on her feet and crouched down.

She hesitantly entered the building. She saw a large spacious kitchen and on the kitchen counter, she saw an unfinished burger. The sight of the nice succulent burger made her tummy rumble, remind her she had not eaten anything.

After that, she tiptoed through the building. She saw a room full of computers and blueprints. She cautiously entered the room to take a closer look. The blue prints were for some high tech armor.

Max heard some footsteps outside the door and dove beneath the desk. Tony noticed that the door, which was supposed to be closed, was open. He entered the room. Max's heart was pounding and she felt a lump in her throat. She tried to be very still. She let out a sigh of relief when Tony left the room.

Just then, Tony heard a bleeping noise on his communicator.

He tapped his earpiece and said, "Stark here."

"OK, General Fury, I'll be right over," he said.

He then suited up and flew towards the SHIELD HQ. After giving Tony a 5-minute head start, Max followed.

To her confusion, Tony was not flying towards the entrance of SHIELD HQ. He continued flying towards large warehouse where he landed close to a small door of what looks like a side entrance. He tapped some codes into the door, which opened for him. Max quickly dove to the ground but was too late. The door closed and she had no way in. She swore loudly. "Damn it!"

She waited there for three hour, pacing back and forth in boredom, but Tony did not come out. She had failed the task and had to tell Romanova the bad news.

It was already four o' clock. Across the horizon shone the brilliant sunrays that cover the darkening sky with stunning shades of purple, pink orange, red, and a hint of yellow.

She grabbed a bite before heading back to the public entrance of SHIELD.

She approached Natasha with a dejected look on her face. "I'm sorry but I lost the target after Tony went into a secret SHIELD base. I waited for three whole hours but he did not come out."


	4. Recollections: Backstory

After a day of training with Natasha Romanova, my wings were sore. I exited the SHIELD HQ and took off into the air.

Skyscrapers reached up farther than the eye could see. Across the horizon shone the brilliant sunrays that cover the darkening sky with stunning shades of purple, pink orange, red, and a hint of yellow. Tall high rises reaching for the sky gleamed and glowed from the sun's rays as if it was on fire.

I flew towards a small-unused tower block close to central park. I flew down to the ground and landed. I folded my wing. I looked around before approaching the building. I tapped the door three times and it creaked open. I coughed as the musty smell of mold hit my nose. It wasn't the greatest accommodation but it was better than sleeping in the trees. And most of all, it still had running water and electricity.

I took off my jacket and tossed it on the old couch I found in a nearby dumpster. The couch was worn down in some areas and springs were poking out.

After that, I walked toward the window and looked out. I saw the day soon turned to night. The sun dipped below the horizon, and the sparkling stars made their appearance. A large round disk that is the moon arose from the horizon.

I was living there living there ever since I came into New York. I was hoping to start a new life in the city and forget my traumatic past as a lab experiment at Itex. All life I was on the run from the erasers, mutant human-wolf hybrid, and crazy scientists that wanted to use me for their own nefarious purpose. Working for SHIELD gave me a sense of purpose, something useful to do with my life.

Had I asked to have wings? No. My mom, Dr. Valencia Martinez is a vet. Ironic huh? Well she's not really my "mom" in a sense and I had never lived with her my whole life. She worked on the avian-human recombinant project, giving the egg that would soon become me to be studied, but she was shut out of the project once the embryo was viable. Crazy scientists thought it would be fun to combine human and bird DNA together. They used protean to combine bird DNA with my normal human DNA making me 2% bird 98% human; 2% of my DNA is bird DNA. As a lab experiment, I was kept in a cage and poke and prodded, subjected to various tests, some of which are too graphic to describe to you readers.

I sighed and went to the bathroom. I grabbed a green towel I had nabbed from a supermarket and wrapped it around myself. I have to admit that I don't condone stealing but as a avian-human freak on the run, I am not exactly rolling in money.

I took off my clothes and wrapped myself with the green hotel tower. I went to the sink and brushed my teeth. When that was done, I placed the plug and filled it up with water. I added a few drops of liquid soap, which I has stolen from a nearby convince store, into the sink. The water started to foam up. I grabbed the pants and rubbed them together. When that was clean, I repeated with the shirt. Then I placed clothes on the sink to air-dry.

After that, I removed the towel and left it on the rack. I looked closely at my face in the bathroom mirror. My cheeks were hollow and there were dark rings under my eyes. My face was littered with scars I obtained from years of battling with the erasers.

I turned the tap on. Brrr, too cold. I tweaked the tap a little to the right, then left until the right temperature was reached.

I let the warm water wash the dirt from my body. I lathered my body with the liquid soap and then stepped under the stream of water, letting my stress and emotion wash way with the cool refreshing stream of water emanating from the showerhead. I spread my wings and carefully cleaned that as well. After ten minutes, I got out of the shower feeling cleansed and energized.

I dried myself off and put on another clean pair of clothes I nicked from a clothing store. I went to the couch and plopped down on it. I turned on the old TV left behind in the house. The pictures on the screen were fuzzy so I got up and giggled the antenna until the picture was clear. I changed the channel to the BBC World News Service which had the headline of "Federal Polytechnic Mubi students killed in Nigeria." The news reporter said, "According to the police, some 25 people, mostly students, have been killed by unknown gunmen in Mubi, north-eastern Nigeria."

_War, violence, destruction,_ I thought, _these are the three prevalent words mentioned in the news these days. Why not peace, prosperity, and cooperation? Why can't there ever be peace in the world? Why can't all the people ever live in unity?_

I flipped through the channel and flipped through the channels before settling on the _X-Factor_ where people singing badly almost made my cringe. When the program was done,

I shuffled towards my bed and crawled under the blanket. At night, I tossed and turned, tormented by dreams of Ari laughing in my face and tearing me to pieces limb by limb.

I woke up the next morning screaming. My heart was pounding and I was drenched with sweat. The next day, I woke up to the sun shining in my face.

We ate our breakfast in silence. The next day I woke up with the sun shining in my face. I groaned and threw off the blanket off me. Then I got up and shuffled to the bathroom and brushed my teeth. I put on the clothes which I had dried the previous night and flew back to SHIELD HQ where more training awaited.

As I entered the building, I saw General Fury talking to a man in blue navy blue uniform. I waited for him to finish before I said, "Excuse me sir."

"Agent Ride, what do you want?" Fury said.

"I was thinking, if it's not too much to ask," I said nervously, "I would like to for an accommodation here at the SHIELD dorm. I had been living in an old run building not far from here. Also, how about my uniform? I saw the other SHIELD recruits have them, but I don't."

General Fury replied, "Your uniform is finished, we made a special one because of your wings, when you finish the training, you'll get a room based on your Level. But for now you can get one… Didn't Agent Romanov tell you this?"

"Umm no, Max replied.

"She will show you the room," Fury said, "I'll send someone with the uniform. Anything else?"

"No that'll be it for now," I said as I walked away looking for Romanov.


	5. Moving in to SHIELD Dorm

I have just moved into the SHIELD dormitory. It was a bit small but it was most pleasant place I've lived in. It's way nicer than the tree branches I used to sleep on while on the run from the Erasers. Believe me, those branches was pretty uncomfortable. Being exposed to the weather and all. When it rain, I got wet and if I did not position myself properly I could fall out, and even though I had wings, the landing was pretty nasty. I once got caught by the police, who actually turned out to be Erasers. Long story short, sleeping on branches in the park: bad.

The room had a single bed. Beside the bed was a small study table and on it, a desk lamp. It had an ensuite bathroom, which was nice. In one corner of the room stood a small three-drawer dresser.

I had brought a few of my stuffs over in a small rucksack. I took out my two set of clothes from the bag and placed it in the drawer. Next, I took out my teddy bear, the only possession I had of my childhood, before everything went wrong.

When I was a baby, Jeb Batchelder smuggled out me out of the School, where I and the Erasers, human-wolf hybrids, were created. Wait a minute you may say, you were created at the School? Yes folks, I am a human-avian hybrid, 2% bird 98% human. Jeb treated me like his daughter, which drove his son, Ari, into turning himself into an Eraser himself.

Then Jeb suddenly disappeared. I thought he was dead, but it turns out he was still evil. We'll get to it later.

When I was fourteen, the Erasers came from me, and kidnapped me and returned me from the School. To my amazement, Jeb was there. He told me my purpose is to "save the world" or something.

I escaped and had been on the run ever since. Time and time again, the erasers came after me to return me to the school, to lock me up and subject me to more tests, but every time they escaped.

Two years ago, all the Erasers disappeared and I found out that all the Erasers were got rid of. In fact, I was the only mutant created by the School that was still out there. This was due to a change in leadership at Itex. The evil director, whose name I still have not known, wanted to terminate all recombinant DNA life-forms. I don't know why he wanted to do that but I think he wanted to "cover up" that Itex was dealing in illegal DNA hybrid creations, flushing down the drain or so to speak. The Erasers were some of the first to be destroyed. I was one of their loose ends he wanted to get rid of. He sent the flyboys, robotic versions of the erasers. I was once again captured and brought to their headquarters. I escaped but found out that he had plans to set off a nerve gas bomb in the Paris sewers. This will bring the gas to over half of the city, instantly killing millions. I foiled their plan.

The knocking on my door brought me out of my recollection. "Coming," I yelled as I quickly put away the last of my belongings. Then I went to the door and opened it.

It was General Nick Fury, the head of SHIELD. Nick Fury was a tall burly African man. Over eye was a black eye patch and he wore a black leather jacket.

In his hands, Nick was carrying a black navy blue uniform that was specially made for me as it had slits on the back for my wings, and on top of that a yellow paper folder.

"How do you like the room?" he asked.

"It's OK I guess," I answered, "Nice and roomy. Most of all, there is water and food."

"Nice to hear that you like it. Um… I brought you the SHIELD. rules, take your time to read and learn them. I hope to see you here Agent Ride," he said and handed me the uniform and the files before turning to leave.

"Wait," I said. Nick turned around.

"Yes? Agent Ride" he answered.

"Who should I hand it in after I sign it?" I said timidly.

"Read them all, and then give it to Agent Romanoff, she will put it on Coulson's desk, I'll get them later … long procedure," he said as he smiled.

"OK then," I said. Nick turned away and I set the new uniform and folder on the desk. I was very excited. This uniform meant that I was part of the team. I grabbed my towel and wrapped it on myself as I removed my clothing and put on my new dark blue SHIELD uniform. After doing that, I went to the full length mirror and examined myself. I looked quite nice in blue but it was a little too tight and the v-neck was a little too low showing off my, ahem, assets. I turned to the side and spotted a badge carrying the SHIELD's eagle and shield logo. I rubbed the badge on the shoulder to make sure it was real. Things have changed a lot for me – from being on the run, to being a member of SHIELD, a multinational organization committed to protecting humanity from outside threats. Perhaps, by joining SHIELD I will fulfill what Jeb told me is my "purpose" – saving the world.

Now for the rules. I turned and picked up the folder before opening it.

My hands were trembling. In the folder was a letter from Nick Fury himself and on top of it was a SHIELD letterhead.

It said:

Dear Agent Maximum Ride:

Congratulations on making the selection of being a SHIELD agent. The rules of SHIELD are quite simple. However, you MUST follow them if you're a SHIELD Agent. Everyone, from the highest ranking agent, to the lowest, have to follow them. Failure to follow the rules would be met with strict punishment and in the worse case, a memory wipe of your time at SHIELD followed by your immediate expulsion from the organization.

When you start as an Agent, you'll get a trainer. Stop everything you're doing when talking to General Fury. Do whatever he tells you to do. If Director Fury is not available, go to Agent Maria Hill. Paperwork

Every Agent has to do paperwork. All reports need to be given to Agent Coulson, on one exception: If Director Fury tells you to give them to him, do it without asking questions. As a new Agent, you'll get someone to teach you about paperwork. Personal relationship:

Personal relationships with other SHIELD agent are allowable, but don't let it get into your work. In addition, if you are a female agent, no pregnancy allowed.

Wait, what? Being pregnant? At 18, I am a little too think of having a baby. Maybe later but not now. Also, how would the baby come out? As an egg? A live birth? I don't know. Ugh! It's making my head spin. Being a human-avian hybrid is complicated.

I continued reading.

Levels:

Every agent is assigned a level in SHIELD. Based on his action, s/he is either moved up one level or down. In addition, based on that, the Agent has clearance access to that level and the ones under him. That means that if you are level one Agent, you only have access information cleared for level one of SHIELD, if a level two Agent, you have access to level one and two, and so on. Missions:

As a new Agent, you won't be sent on a mission before you've passed your training. Only when highly trained you'll get missions. When sent on a mission it's highly expected from you to succeed, it's expected from you to contact director Fury on every information you get. If being caught, do not break down, and most of all, if being tortured DO NOT give information./li

When trained, you'll be given a desk at SHIELD. We expect from you to do your job properly.

Remember: If you follow all these rules, you'll not get in trouble.

I, Maximum Ride, hereby accept the of being a SHIELD rules promise not to break them. I understand the consequence of breaking the rules.

Signature: _"

I took a pen from the pen cup on the desk and scribbled in Maximum Ride before placing it carefully in the folder. After unpacking, I went looking for Agent Romanov for my next task. I found her and handed her the folder.


	6. Max signature

Dear Agent Maximum Ride:

Congratulations on making the selection of being a SHIELD agent. The rules of SHIELD are quite simple. However, you MUST follow them if you're a SHIELD Agent. Everyone, from the highest ranking agent, to the lowest, have to follow them. Failure to follow the rules would be met with strict punishment and in the worse case, a memory wipe of your time at SHIELD followed by your immediate expulsion from the organization.

When you start as an Agent, you'll be assigned a trainer. Stop everything you're doing when talking to General Fury. Do whatever he tells you to do. If Director Fury is not available, go to Agent Maria Hill.

Paperwork

Every Agent has to do paperwork. All reports need to be given to Agent Coulson, on one exception: If Director Fury tells you to give them to him, do it without asking questions. As a new Agent, you'll get someone to teach you about paperwork.

Personal relationship:

Personal relationships with other SHIELD agent are allowable, but don't let it get into your work. In addition, if you are a female agent, you must not get pregnant while on active duty.

Levels:

Every agent is assigned a level in SHIELD. Based on his action, s/he is either moved up one level or down. In addition, based on that, the Agent has clearance access to that level and the ones under him. That means that if you are level one Agent, you only have access information cleared for level one of SHIELD, if a level two Agent, you have access to level one and two, and so on.

Missions:

As a new Agent, you won't be sent on a mission before you've passed your training. Only when highly trained you'll get missions. When sent on a mission it's highly expected from you to succeed, it's expected from you to contact director Fury on every information you get. If being caught, do not break down, and most of all, if being tortured **DO NOT** out **ANY** information.

When trained, you'll be given a desk at SHIELD. We expect from you to do your job properly.

Remember: If you follow all these rules, you'll not get in trouble.

I, Maximum Ride, hereby accept the of being a SHIELD rules promise not to break them. I understand the consequence of breaking the rules.

Signature: Maximum Ride


	7. Flock Rescue

I was sitting in my desk scanning the news feeds for anything of interest. Things were pretty quiet on the front line. Since my recruitment 2 months ago, I was cooped up at the SHIELD in what is a sort of "sentry duty" scanning for potential threats. Although I have passed my training, I had not been sent on a single mission and I was yearning for some adrenaline action.

There was not a single incident of attacks from Loki or any of the other villains, which was very suspicious. In addition, General Fury had gone missing. I have asked around Agent Oliver, my recruiting officer, and Mrs. Maria Hill, the second in command, but neither of them had heard about him.

While I was looking at the screen trawling through the funny YouTube videos on cats, suddenly, a small popup at the corner of the screen flashed. I maximize the window. The web crawler I have set to find out other experiments like me had flagged something interesting. The crawler picked up the words "avian," "hybrid," and "experiment" being mentioned on a shady underground forums. I clicked on the link and it loads up the thread saying they have 5 avian-human hybrid for sale to the highest bidder: Experiment #665 Series A, Experiment #666 Series A, Experiment #667 Series A, Experiment #668 Series A, Experiment #669 Series A. In what is dubbed "The Angel Experiment," this was Itexicon's first successful attempt in human-animal hybrids.

_Itexicon… Itexicon,_ I thought, _where have I heard that name?_ The name "Itexicon" seems really, really familiar to me.

Suddenly a bell rang in my head. Itexicon was the name of the company behind the lab I escaped from. It was stamped everywhere, from the uniform of the people working at the labs to the equipments.

The word triggered the painful memory of me being kept in a cage and subjected to various painful experiments. I feel myself short of breath and gasping for air.

_Keep it together Max,_ I told myself. I took a deep breath to calm myself down.

When I was at The School, the lab where I was "developed," I heard the other lab technicians mentioning other experiments. However, at that time I was heavily sedated that I barely knew what was going on. I was in a sort of dream like state.

I scanned the thread and according to the thread, the auction being held at The Institute for Higher Living at 118 New Street Avenue, New York. These experiments would be demoed and sold to the highest bidder.

The news got me quite excited. There are like me. And I had to rescue them from captivity.

I printed out the forum thread. Then I went to knock on Agent Oliver's door.

"Come in," she replied.

"Agent Oliver," I said, "I discovered the news that there are other experiments like me and I want to free them. Is there any way you can authorize a mission for me? I know this is of short notice."

"Max, I'm sorry, but I can't surprise missions, it's not within the remit if my position. However, take these forms and go to the assignments department," she replied. "Tell them I sent you."

"Who?" I said.

Agent Oliver looks at the duty rosters before responding, "Agent Whitman should be on duty right now. He'll be able to approve it."

"Right," I replied, "So where is this department located? SHIELD is a really large building and it is veerry easy to get lost!"

"Take the elevator at the end of the corridors to the 4th floor. Take the second corridor on the right and it's the left 2nd door," she answered.

"Okey dokey," I said and headed out.

I followed the direction given by Agent Oliver to a nice tidy office. In the office sat a rather young man and beside him stood General Fury.

"Agent Ride. I'm approving your mission. They can't do such thing as sell them. we'll make sure that Itexicon pays for their actions," General Fury said.

"Thank you for approving such the mission on such short notice," I replied fidgeting.

"Very welcome. The department has to contact me first, and since Agent Oliver sent you there. Your 'message' came to me first. The assignment department has to send me the assignments especially the assignments other agents want."

"Oh my god," I said excitedly, "General Fury, sir, you're back! You were gone for two months! "

"I had to. I had something very important to do," he replied.

"It's just good to see you again. I thought you were dead."

A small smile appears on his lips. "Me? Dead?" he said, "Oh, don't worry about that Agent Ride. I know how to take care of myself. I'm the director of SHIELD. I know a lot of things, but know a lot of hiding places too if anything happens "

"So what would be the best course of action?" I asked

"To free others like you?" he replied " We'll send a team there, attack when they at least expect."

"You'll come from behind and free the experiments," he continued, "Since they'll be scared, try to explain that you're one of them, and that we came to free them as fast as you can. We'll have no time for talking. We'll free them and capture the sellers to get info. But the experiments have to come with us too. We'll have to run some tests on them."

"Will you be involved General Fury? Or am I to lead the whole operation?" I asked.

"Although you are new here, you know the place better than any of us so I'm putting you in charge of the mission. I would come, but I can't," he responded, "I have more pressing things to do. I will inform you when a team is assembled."

"But the auctions will take place this evening," I said, "After that they may be moved."

"I will see what I can do," he said.

I exited the room and return to my dorm. I was quite nervous, as it would be my first mission. In addition, I would meet the other experiments like me and free them.

A few hours later, I received a call on the local telephone. "Agent Ride meet me in the briefing room."

I grabbed the dark blue SHIELD mission suit and put it on. It hugged every curve on my body. I tested snapping out my wings through the slits in the back of the suit and it opened perfectly.

I walked into the mission room and was greeted to a lanky geekish boy with blond hair and a young girl with fiery red hair tied back in pig tails. Neither of them looked older than I am. General Fury was also in the room.

All right, this is not exactly the commando unit I was expecting.

"Sorry," General Fury said a little apologetically, "Most of the agents are on Christmas holiday and this is the best I could do in such short notice."

"Brianna here," General Fury nodded at the red-haired girl, "has superspeed. Basically, she can run really, really fast. We clocked her at about 600 miles per hour."

"And Jack," Fury said nodding at the boy, "is rather good with computers. He should be able to hack into any systems."

"Hiya," she said rather perkily and held out her hand to me. I took her hand and shook it with a smile.

"Everyone this is Max," Fury said, "she will be in charge with this mission."

"So Max," Fury said turning to me, "tell our operatives the mission plan."

"Umm right," I said, "So ummm…." I was shaking all over like a Chihuahua. I was super anxious as this was my first mission and I didn't want to fail. To make matters worse, I was put in charge of the mission.

I breathe in deeply to calm my nerve. "This morning my web crawlers pick up an underground website dealing with the trading of genetic experiment. Avian-human hybrids to be specific."

I took a look at my gang to make sure they are still following me.

"I too am a human-avian hybrid created by the same company that is selling these experiments. Therefore, it is also a personal mission for me to save the avian-human hybrids, to rescue them," I continued.

"OK?" Brianna asked confused.

I turn to look at General Nick Fury for guidance. "Well it's your mission," he said. "You are in charge."

"Right, some back ground info." I tapped on the glass table throwing up the Itexicon's website. "Itexicon or Itex for short are the world's largest corporation producing everything from toilet papers to processors. Itex owns half of the world, literally. They own almost every company, having branches in every country in the whole world. They have bases worldwide. Our target is at 118 New Street Avenue, New York. The auction for the experiment will end the day after tomorrow after which we can assume they will be shipped out to the potential client."

"Plan of action," I continued double tapping the glass, "The plan is to get in, rescue the bird-kids and get out. Oh and grab any intel you can on the company and their illicit activity."

"How about the gadgets," Jack asked, "I take it every agents on a mission gets issued special gadgets, which is always exciting."

"Umm," I said hesitantly, "I was never told about that."

I glanced again at Fury. He pressed a button on the console and a rather old man wearing scarves and glasses entered the room carrying three boxes. He opened the first box in it was three headsets, which was similar to what I have seen other SHIELD agents wearing. "These are stand issue headsets," the man explained, "It is fully voice activated so you just speak into it to activate."

I nodded, grabbed the earpiece, and placed it into my ears. I am beginning to look the part already. Brianna and Jack also did the same.

"Next," he continued opening the second box. In it were three sleek rounded smart phones, "we have the smart phones. They may look like regular everyday consumer headsets but underneath the stock Android Jelly Bean operating system is the specialized SHIELD OS present on all SHIELD computers. It will have access to the SHIELD network of information. To access it, double tap on the top right corner of the screen as so. To exit swipe upwards or press on the power button."

He double tapped on the screen as instructed and the Android interface was replaced by the spinning SHIELD logo. He swiped upward, returning the phone to the Android interface, and handed it to me. He gave the two remaining phones to Jack and Brianna.

"As for the weapons, you will be issued with the standard issue Glock 19," he said handing us the guns. I placed the guns in the side holster on the side of my pants.

"Oh and here's your ride," the old man said handing me the keys.

"Please do return the equipment in one piece," the old man chided.

After the weapons were sorted out, all eyes returned to me. "This is a covert operation. So keep noises down to a minimum. We will leave in two hours. Be sure to wear civilian outfits over your uniform to conceal them. Meet me at the underground car park."

The three of us like three teenagers on a day out instead of an official SHIELD mission, well apart from the headsets, which, luckily, looks like Bluetooth headsets. I wore a loose gray t-shirt and jean pants while Brianna wore a green t-shirt with a red color around the lining around the neck and black sweatpants. Jack had on a blue hoodie over his SHIELD uniform and blue cargo pants.

"Which do you think is our ride," Brianna asked.

"I don't know," I answered. I pressed on the key fob and the chirping sound came from the right. I craned my head over the sea of black SUVs and saw that the chirping sound came a silver four door urban mini.

"Well I guess nothing says rescue mission like four teenagers in a red mini," I said rather flatly. I jumped into the driver's seat while Brianna and Jack rochambeaued for the unwanted back seat; Jack won. Brianna was squished at the back of the car and was quite grumpy throughout the whole ride.

In 30 minutes, we arrived at our destination. We got out of the car and as soon as Jack got out from the front, Brianna leaped out. "Finally!" she exclaimed, "some room to stretch."

I looked around but could see nothing but tall skyscrapers. "Are we sure we're at the right place Max," Brianna asked.

"Well this is where the address leads to," I replied.

We walked down the street looking for the elusive building 118. "114, 116, here it is, 118," I said reading out the building numbers. There was no sign whatsoever saying "Institute for Higher Living" or just about any indication it holds a laboratory. In fact, building 118 looked nothing like a lab but rather a tall glass-paned tower block. I began to doubt myself

"Now what?" Brianna said.

"Well, we could go to the lobby and ask. We might get lucky," I replied with a shrug.

Coming up with no better idea we entered the rotating doors and approached the lady at the desk. Above her were the embossed letters of AMcon, which our sources says is one of the companies belonging to Itexicon. Well at least we were at the right place.

"Excuse me," I said. The lady stopped her typing looked up at me.

"Can I help you miss?" the receptionist said flatly.

"Can you please tell me where I can find the Institute of Higher Living," I said in the sweetest voice.

"The what now," she said, looking at me like I was crazy. "The Institute of Higher Living," I repeated.

"I got an apprenticeship letter to work at the Institute," I lied.

"Stop wasting my time," she said annoyed. Then she continued her work. We went out of the building and went to the nearby Subway restaurant to grab a bite. "Well that was a waste of time," I said, "How are we ever going to find the…?"

"Max," Jack interjected, "when we were at the facility I took a look at SHIELD satellite scans of the area. It shows a large cavern underneath the building. That's where the lab should be located."

Jack showed me his phone displaying the satellite picture of the area.

"Good work Jack," I complemented. "But the problem is how are we getting down there?"

"The lab is close to the sewers and there are access hatch leading to the cavern," he replied.

"Where's the nearest sewer …?" I asked but before I could complete my question I spotted round sewer hatch just across the stret.

"Forty feet from here," Jack replied nevertheless.

I finished my sub sandwich and tossed the wrapping into the trashcan. Then I headed to the toilet to wash my hand, a quite unnecessary action since we were heading to the sewers, which was not exactly known for its cleanness. When the others were done, we crossed the street. We looked around to make sure there was nobody in sight before we pried open the cover. Being the leader of the mission, I climbed in first. The ladder of the hatch didn't exactly reach all the way the bottom so I had to jump; there was about a five foot drop. As I splashed into the sewers, I felt something big and lumpy float past my legs, which I'm sure wasn't quite nice. Thankfully, the SHIELD uniform was waterproof since although my outside clothes were wet, my body stayed dry.

Brianna and Jack climbed in after me. I fished out my phone and launched the torch app. This turned on the phone's LED flash and illuminated the surroundings. I ripped off my civilian shirt and pants, which was ruined anyways, leaving just my SHIELD uniform.

"Max, what are you doing," Brianna asked curiously.

"Umm…. switching to mission mode." I replied, "Basically I'm removing my civilian's outfit."

"Right," Brianna said, and before I could blink an eye, she changed took off her outer clothing. Jack also removed his outer shirts, though not quite as fast.

In the distance, we heard the squeaking of the rats and Brianna let out an "Eep."

"Hush," I said.

"Sorry," Brianna apologized.

We plodded in silence with nothing but the occasional squeal of the rats (and of Brianna) to keep us company. Soon we came upon a metal hatch with a 5-digit combination lock in the center. All eyes turned on Jack since computers and gadgets were his specialty.

I shone the light on the lock while Jack did his thing. After 5 minutes, we were in. Just as we entered the building, we encountered a squad of guards armed with long machine guns.

"Intr.." before the guard could finish the word, Brianna whizzed around the room and took out all of the guards. She even had time to scan the vicinity and nab three lab coats for the three of us. We shook ourselves the best we could and then put on the coats.

Brianna took out a chocolate bar from her lower pocket and popped it into her mouth.

"Seriously, this is no time for snack breaks," I said angrily.

"Super speed drains the calories," she replied and I needed a refill.

"Fine," I replied.

The Institute was a large sterile building with many corridors. Although we had made it into the lab, we had no idea where the human-avian experiments were stored. We came upon a dark room full of crates. I opened the door and from it came an assortment of sounds ranging from the ribbiting of frogs to the braying of squaking of birds. I peered into one of the crates and could see a young boy, around 5 years old with a green skin. He also had a double eyelid and yellow eyes like a frog as well as webbed fingers and toes.

"Hello," I said tenderly. Instead of replying, the boy "ribbited" at me. The boy was more frog than human. I moved on to the next cage where I saw a cat-dog hybrid growling ravenously threatening tear itself apart due to its conflicting nature.

In another cage was a short girl with purple hair and a bushy purple tail, and, in another, was a 14 year old girl with wings like me. Our eyes met contact and I could feel the plea to free her.

I feel a sickening feeling in my stomach. There were rows upon rows of crates of genetic experiments, not all of which are successful.

I felt Brianna tugging on my hands, which snapped me back to my mission of finding the 5 avian-human hybrids that was on sale.

"I promise I will free all of you," I whispered before I left the room.

As soon as we came out of the room, we bumped into a short and rather stout scientist with a long mustache. "Vat are ze doing here, Mrs. Marian Janssen" he said in the thickest German accent, "you are suppose to be at zee demo of ze experiments."

Jackpot. Although I don't know who this Marian Janssen lady is suppose to be but apparently she is of authority.

"Just checking on the experiments," I said cooly.

"Follow me," he said.

I timidly followed him signaling Brianna and Jack to stay out of sight.

We arrived at room 629 where a crowd of other, presumably, evil scientist has gathered. Too bad I do not have any eye camera or any micro cameras for that matter so that I could snap a picture of the scientists.

"Take a look at ze nice speciments," he said in a thick German accent. The other scientists drew closer to take a look.

The bird-kids were lined up against the walls. However, they had no intention of escaping since they had the dull sedated look over their eyes. The experiments range from a tall boy around the same height and age as me a young girl in a frilly dress around the age of 4. One of the girls really stood out since she has dark skin unlike the others who had light skin.

"How much are they?" a Chinese man in suit and tie asked.

"For zhat, we have to consult our director Marian Jansseh here," the portly scientist said nodding at me.

"Umm," I said, "go to hell."

I shot at the light bulbs in the room shrouding the room in darkness. I blinked as my pupil slowly adjusted to the darkness. Thank goodness that I can see slightly better than normal human beings do.

I approached the little girl with frilly shirt since I figured that she would cause the last problems. "Don't hurt me," she said into my mind. Her voice echoed in my brain.

"I am here to help you," I said. "I am one of the good guys."

"Don't hurt me, don't hurt me," she whined in my head giving me a massive headache.

"I am like one of you guys," I explain. I work for an organization called SHIELD dedicated to protect the world from threats."

The sound of the gunfire drew the attention of the guards and outside alarms loudly.

In a last attempt to convince them to follow me, I opened my wings wide. I knew the others can't see in the utter darkness but if they are anything like me, they could.

"See I am an experiment like you," I said.

They stared in amazement at me.

At that moment, I could hear gunfire outside the door, which suddenly cease as Brianna kicked down the door. Brianna suddenly cascade

"Come on," I exasperated, "we have to go."

I made sure the experiment hybrids we were rescuing left first before I followed. Angel and Gazzy, the two youngest hybrids hovered in the air while the kid with black wings grabbed the hand of the other bird-kid his age and dragged him along.

In the flashing red lights, I noticed that the eyes of the hybrid being dragged are clouded white.

"Is he blind," I asked.

"Yes," replied the sexy hybrid with black wings.

Alarms continue to sound and we could hear the marching of feet not far behind us. "Brianna," I said, "free the experime…"

"On it," she said and ran off with a blur.

Boy this is getting annoying.

I saw the stampede of experiments crowd the hall heading straight toward us in panic.

"That way to the exit," I screamed. The experiments stopped in their tracks and turned around. The guards were inundated by the escaping experiments.

I passed by an office with the plaque that read Jeb Batchelder with the words Lead scientist below that. I stopped in my tracks and entered into the room. Jack, who was close by and could see me, hissed into my earpiece "Max, what the hell are you doing?"

"Gathering information," I screeched back into the mic.

I took out my phone from my pocket and attached it to the computer using the built in USB adapter. When I did that, the Android interface asked me whether I want to mount the phone as a hard-drive. I pressed cancelled and launched the SHIELD OS. I hit "copy hard disk" and the software proceeded to make a copy of all the files on the computer.

I saw a file on the desktop labeled "Max." I opened the file and scanned the content. I saw the name "Dr. Valencia Martinez," "egg donor" and "Arizona" on the file. If the lady donated the egg she must be my mother. And apparently she lived in Phoenix, Arizona.

I heard footsteps outside the door and glared at the progress bar 50 percent, but the person did not enter the room. My heart literally leapt into my throat when I saw the handle of the door turn.

I quickly dove beneath the desk but the phone remained on the table.

"Max," the white coat said, "I know you are hiding there."

_How the hell did he know my name,_ I thought.

"Oh, I've missed you so much. I am so glad you are alive," the man said. "When you ran away I was so worried."

Was he for real? Seriously.

I heard the ding from the phone signaling the completion of the file transfer. I slowly emerged from the bottom of the desk with the gun pointed at his head.

The man was fairly tall with a squarish face blond hair and moustache, like me. He wore a long lab coat with a red tie.

"You wouldn't shoot your father would you Max?" he chuckled.

"You are not my father," I said keeping my gun pointed at him. "No father would experiment on their daughter."

"Can't you see," he said, "We augmented you with bird DNA. Max, that reason, that purpose, you are supposed to save the world."

I pointed the gun at his knee and fired. The man buckled in pain and fell to the ground. I ran past him but my corridor was blocked by a group of erasers and Ari, the lead of the erasers. The erasers are hybrids like us but they are human-lupine hybrids. In other words, part man-part wolf, sorta like werewolves but much nastier and oh very real.

"Remember me Experiment #664 Series A," he snarled at me.

"Oh yes I remember your dog breathe anywhere Ari," I replied. "Oh and call me Maximum Ride not Experiment #664 Series A or whatever gibberish serial number you guys give me."

"You will not escape from me again Maximum Ride. You have made a fool to come to this place," he growled.

"Oh give it a break," I said squeezing the trigger. The bullet hit Ari but he barely buckled. I fired another round but he was still standing. Ten shots finally bought the beast down but the other erasers were charging at me. I tried to fire the gun but it knocked the gun out of my hand, sending it skidding on the floor. I dived for the gun but another eraser got there first and destroyed it. An eraser leapt out and try to squash me but I quickly rolled out of the way. I gave an eraser an uppercut and kicked another in the balls leaving him howling in pain. Men. If in doubt, go for the bottom. It will hurt like hell.

I squeezed past the erasers and dashed for the exit. I ran to the service exit and spread my wings and shot into the air. I could see the erasers following not close behind of me. An eraser poked its head through the sewer hatch and I wacked its head with the grill. He fell down with a splash. Then I swiftly returned the grill to its place so that no pedestrian will fall down into the sewers.

"SHIELD HQ this is Max, request cleanup crew at site. Freed experiments mixed with baddies," I said into the headset.

"Agent Ride, acknowledge," came the reply.

When I arrived at the car, I could spot a problem. The red mini was cramped full with the rescued experiments with no place for me.

"Jack you drive," I said I would be flying back.

I flew back to SHIELD HQ with the sun setting behind me. Although I was tired and dirty, I was happy. I was thoroughly pleased with myself as my first mission was a success.

But one thing tickled my mind. First, that creep scientist claims to be my father. Second, I read in my file that my genetic mother could possibly be alive in Phoenix, Arizona. If I ever get a chance to get to Arizona, I will drop by to say hi. Hope she is not as bad as my "dad."


End file.
